Every homebrewer needs reliable bottles whether they brew beer, ciders, mead, or any other type of brew. There are many bottle types on the market and they differ in color, size, design, and thickness which indicates bottle pressure tolerance.
I mostly brew beer and mead and I have my personal choice when it comes to bottles which I will reveal soon to you, but let me first explain important things you need to know before you choose your favorite bottle type.
I’ll first explain a few important factors when choosing a bottle for your homebrew and then I’ll list the bottle options on the market with the best offers I could find.
In short, these are the common bottles homebrewers use:
- Long-neck glass bottles
- British bottles
- Flip-top glass bottles (AKA Swing top or Grolsch)
- PET bottles
- Oxygen barrier PET bottles
What should you look for in a bottle? (Important factors)
Should you use clear or colored bottles?
There are clear and colored bottles and in most cases, homebrewers should choose colored bottles because they offer protection against the light.
The light and sun exposure especially can seriously impact the beer because hops are sensitive to light and unwanted chemical reactions can occur. This problem is common with all beer types but especially with hoppy beers like IPAs.
On the other hand, this is not a problem for brews that do not rely on hops, so you can see why beers always come in a colored bottle, while you can find drinks like mead in a clear bottle.
Furthermore, you can choose between multiple colors, but brown and green bottles are the most common. The brown-colored bottle has the best protection against light and UV, so it’s the best choice for hoppy beers and green bottles are great for less hoppy beers like lagers.
I personally, always use brown bottles because they are simply the safest pick and look awesome.
What bottle size is right for you?
Homebrewers mostly use standard-size bottles because they are the most accessible and usually the most affordable option for most homebrews. I primarily use 16 oz bottles and occasionally use the 12 oz ones.
| Size | Bottle type |
|---|---|
| 12 oz (355m) | Long-neck, Stubby |
| 16 oz (500ml) | British |
There are also other bottles homebrewers can choose from for rare occasions such as special imperial stouts, Viking blood mead, or whatever seems fitting.
| Size | Bottle type |
|---|---|
| 7 oz (207 ml) | Pony, Nip |
| 12.7 oz (375 ml) | Belgian |
| 22oz (650 ml) | Bomber |
| 32 oz (940ml | Mexican style |
| 40 oz (1180ml) | Forty |
| 64 oz (1892ml) | Growler |
Does design matter?
There are not many variations in design on popular bottles you can find on the market, but you can still choose from a few different designs.
If the design matters to you, you will have to contact a bottling facility and negotiate a design that will fit your brand and product. However, I don’t know anyone who did this for homebrewing except for the guys who went commercial. Design is indeed one of the most important factors for the success of microbreweries and it doesn’t only apply to the bottle design, but also to the label.
Pressure tolerance of a bottle
Pressure tolerance is something that matters when you carbonize your homebrew. All common beer bottle types I mentioned have great pressure tolerance, but there are bottles such as wine bottles that have lesser pressure tolerance and can shatter during carbonation.
For this reason, you should not carbonize your homebrew in wine bottles and other questionable bottles that are not created for a carbonized homebrew in the first place.
Bottle types you can choose from
Long-neck glass bottles
Long-neck bottles are probably the most common beer bottles you have seen in life. They are the absolute standard in the beer industry and for a reason, they are great by design, and quality and come in standard American size of 12oz (355ml).
British bottles
British people praise these bottles just as they do their British-style beers. There must be a reason they are for so long on the market and are used in almost every brewery in the region.
The standards there are a bit different than in the US, so usually you’ll find 500ml (16.0 oz) British bottles in the region.
Flip-top glass bottles
Flip-top also known as swing-top or Grolsch bottles are rarely found in commercial breweries but are a popular choice of homebrewers across the globe.
These bottles work great for homebrewer’s needs and come in both the transparent and the colored types. What makes Flip-tops ideal for homebrewers is that they have a reusable cap which also makes them a perfect reusable type of bottle.
When you use classic bottles with unreusable caps, you need to buy new caps over and over and use a capping machine during bottling. With Flip-top bottles, this is an easy mode because you only need to wash and sanitize the reusable caps and use your fingers to cap them.
Flip-top bottles will save you money and time in the long term, but they initially cost more.
PET bottles
PET bottles are strong plastic bottles that can also be used for homebrewing but are not used as commonly as glass bottles for purposes of brewing beer and most other brews.
Personally, I do not like them and only use them when I need to measure the CO2 levels in a bottle. (You can check the progress of carbonation with PET bottles if you squeeze them before bottling because they will get back in shape and harden as CO2 grows.)
If you like the idea of plastic bottles then I would advise that you use the next, improved type of PET bottle.
Oxygen barrier PET bottles
Oxygen barrier PET bottles improve on the disadvantage of classic PET bottles which are imperfections with a seal.
PET bottles can leak because it’s difficult to create a perfect seal on them and this can become a problem when you store brew in a PET bottle for more than 2-3 weeks.
Belgian bottles
Belgian bottles are similar to long-neck bottles and come in a 12.7oz (375 ml) which is a small difference from the standard in the USA and also differs by the design. What I like about these bottles is that you can find these bottles with corks.
Corks are unusual in beer brewing because they are mostly used for winemaking, but nevertheless, corks can be a great way to make your homebrew beer more interesting.
Stubby bottles
Oh, I love stubbies. They are so small, almost fluffy, and have a vintage design.
These bottles might seem smaller because they are chubby, but can handle as much beer as long-neck bottles.
I don’t use these bottles in my homebrewing often, but I definitely do have them in mind for the special beers that I want to brand as a gift. There’s something special in them that screams “premium, sophisticated, expensive beer”.
Can you reuse bottles for homebrewing?
Every homebrewer should reuse their bottles for as much as they can. Sometimes the bottles get damaged or lost, but it is ideal if you reuse your bottles because they can get quite expensive if you have to buy new bottles for each batch.
Do not forget to take care of your bottles because if they get dirty it can become a real nightmare to remove the dirt and reuse them.
For this reason, it’s important to wash them as soon as possible, so the dirt doesn’t have time to stick to the walls and dry.
Moreover, the flip-top bottles are perfect for reuse due to their lovely design. Being able to reuse the caps also means a lot when you consider how often you need to order them from a store.
Final take
Obviously, I haven’t mentioned every single bottle that exists, so you may find more interesting bottles on the market. However, I have listed your standard size and a few special occasion bottles that homebrewers use depending on the brew.
Bottles are supposed to tell a story along with the label and a cap because even before the brew is tested, the process of experience begins.
If you are starting with homebrewing and do not want to make things complex, stick to the standard sizes and get them for cheap in bulk if possible.